


The Echo Of Silence

by katling



Series: Tony Stark Bingo [22]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Team Tony, Vignette, a little angsty, but it's post-Infinity War, calm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 15:44:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20293969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: Thanos is gone and everyone had faded into dust. Only Tony and Nebula are left.Just a little character piece looking at the beginnings of their friendship after IW and before things get really bad on their trip back.Written for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square R4: Alien Planet





	The Echo Of Silence

The silence on Titan seemed to echo in the wake of the Snap, of Thanos leaving and the others turning to dust. Tony didn’t know what to think or say or do and as the adrenaline of the fight began to fade, the pain in his stomach started to grow. He didn’t even realise anyone else had been left alive until a hand suddenly gripped his shoulder.

He squawked and twisted and the motion made his side hurt even more so his protest died and was replaced by a strangled gasp. He looked up into the impassive blue face of the woman who had arrived unexpectedly to join them in the fight. Nebula, he thought Quill had called her.

“Do you know where he would have gone?” she asked, terse and tense.

Tony blinked, his mind a blank other than an internal scream of Peter’s name, then he nodded. “Earth. Terra. The last stone is there.” He paused and said in a daze, “He got it. Vision…”

Nebula nodded sombrely. “Yes, he did. He would not have stayed on Terra.” She gave him a once over then looked around. “There should be medical supplies in Quill’s ship.”

Tony let her help him up, biting back noises of pain as his wound made itself fully known. The nanites would have prioritised repairing the internal damage but he hadn’t been able to spare many of them by that stage. He would need more conventional treatment… whatever that meant out here.

Nebula didn’t exactly have the best bedside manner as she treated his wound but she was quick and efficient and she explained what she was going to do every step of the way. When she was finally done, Tony was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. He sat where he’d propped himself up after she’d finished treating his wound and watched as she put everything away. It didn’t escape him that she was keeping it easily accessible and he guessed that he wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

“What now?” he said, the words dripping from his lips.

Nebula looked momentarily surprised, apparently because he was seeking her opinion, then she glanced around the ship. “I need to check how much damage has been done and whether it can be fixed. You should rest.”

“I’m… I’m a mechanic,” Tony said, pushing himself a little more upright. “Maybe I can help?”

Nebula cocked her head at him then some sort of emotion that Tony couldn’t quite read flickered over her face. “Get some rest. Once I know what’s broken, we can come back to that.”

Tony nodded, conceding to her point. He settled back against the wall and sighed. “What are the odds that we can get back to Earth… Terra?”

Nebula had been moving around to check the damage and now she halted and stared down at the floor for a moment. “Not good,” she said reluctantly. 

Tony nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

Nebula was silent as she continued her work. She glanced over in his direction from time to time and after several minutes, she finally spoke. Her voice was tense and tight, almost defensive, as though she expected him to attack her for what she said. “He was your son?”

A lump grew in Tony’s throat and he swallowed it, closing his eyes against the pain he felt at those final desperate, frightened words Peter had said.

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I don’t have any kids.”

“Family doesn’t have to be blood related,” Nebula said after a few minutes.

Tony nodded. “Yeah.” He was quiet for a while then he drew in a shuddering breath and let it out again. “Yeah, he was my kid.”

Nebula stilled where she was checking a panel in the wall then she nodded as well. “He killed my sister. For the Soul Stone.”

Tony nodded and closed his eyes, letting his head rest on the bulkhead behind him. So many lost to Thanos and no hope of getting them back except for Strange’s cryptic ‘There was no other way’. No other way but to surrender the stone and give Thanos what he wanted? It made no sense to Tony but he’d admit that most of his brain was pretty much offline right now and he didn’t have much desire to bring it back online.

Instead, he let himself wallow as he listened to the sounds of Nebula moving around the ship, checking on various things. He wasn’t sure if it was irony or just sad that, barring some kind of miracle, he was going to die among the stars he’d been terrified of since the invasion with a complete stranger, an alien who had once been a minion of Thanos, who had shown more empathy and kindness to him in her own aloof, brusque sort of way than some people who had once called themselves his friends.

“You should meet my friend Rhodey,” he murmured, kind of apropos of nothing and not even sure if she would hear him.

She had though and she came a little closer now. “Why?” she asked curiously.

“I think you’d like him.” He was more than half asleep now, exhaustion and grief dragging him down. “Only sane people in a sea of idiots,” he mumbled as sleep finally conquered him.

He didn’t see Nebula watch him curiously for a moment before she turned away. “Maybe I would. But it won’t happen.”


End file.
